The Dispatch E-Edition

All current subscribers have full access to Digital D, which includes the E-Edition and
unlimited premium content on Dispatch.com, BuckeyeXtra.com, BlueJacketsXtra.com and
DispatchPolitics.com.
Subscribe
today!

Since January, Ohio has approved operating permits for 27 centers that take drilling mud,
radioactive rocks and wastewater from fracking wells and store or “clean” it before sending it on
to landfills or injection wells.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has approved every permit — considered temporary until
the state writes rules that regulate the centers — without any public notification or input.

That worries critics, who say there is little oversight to ensure that the environment and
people who live near the facilities are safe.

At least 12 facilities are operating. Some operated before a law was enacted in January that
brings them under the state’s authority.

State officials say recycling centers clean otherwise dirty byproducts of fracking and divert
some of the millions of gallons of wastewater that is pumped deep underground in injection
wells.

“They need a place to put (the waste), and they need a place to test it,” said Mark Bruce, an
ODNR spokesman. “You don’t want a container of oil-field waste just sitting somewhere.”

The temporary permits expire six months after the department creates rules. Those are still
being drafted, according to the agency.

To pull oil and natural gas from shale, companies drill vertically and then turn sideways into
the rock. Then they frack — blasting millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals into the
shafts to free trapped oil and gas. During the process, fluids bubble back up with the gas.

Oil and gas wells also produce saltwater contaminated with metals and radioactive materials
trapped underground for millions of years. That waste often is injected into deep wells. But a
series of earthquakes in western states and in northeastern Ohio, as well as concerns about
drinking-water contamination, has many critics worried about injection wells.

Some also are concerned about fracking-waste recycling centers.

State officials can ask for test results that show whether radioactive waste is coming through
these facilities, but neither Natural Resources nor the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has
done so yet.

The Dispatch reviewed permit applications and found that the facilities do a variety of
things related to drilling and fracking waste.

One facility in New Philadelphia in Tuscarawas County said it cleans tanks and trucks that
transport fracking wastewater. Another in Athens County stores wastewater until it can be pumped
into a nearby injection well.

And one in Wooster cleans radioactive waste from Pennsylvania fracking wells and sends it to
landfills. The same company, West Virginia-based Enviroclean, is locked in a legal battle with the
city over an industrial waste-treatment center it operates there. The city says the plant spews
noxious fumes into a nearby neighborhood.

Richard Benson, Wooster’s law director, said no one notified the city that the company is
hauling drilling and fracking waste into Wooster. Wooster has appealed the company’s permit to the
state Oil and Gas Commission, a board appointed by the governor. A hearing has yet to be
scheduled.

“Our concern is the absence of regulations,” Benson said. “What sort of protocols do they have
for safety? What if a spill occurs?”

State engineers review each permit application and visit every site, said Blake Arthur, an ODNR
engineer who works with the recycling facilities.

If there’s a spill or other incident once a facility is operating, it’s up to the company to
report it.

Bruce said existing federal and state laws apply to the facilities and protect the environment
and people while Natural Resources drafts rules.

But environmental-advocacy groups and some people who live near the facilities are not sold.

“These are facilities handling some of the most-dangerous waste streams from the fracking
industry,” said Brian Kunkemoeller, a conservation project manager with the Sierra Club’s Ohio
chapter. “And they exist in a complete black hole where there are no standards, there’s no permit,
there’s no public notice.”

Bruce said that fracking waste is no different from the industrial waste that Ohio companies
have dealt with for years.

Before January, at least eight recycling facilities operated without permits. Bruce said Natural
Resources is monitoring the facilities now through inspections and conversations with the oil and
gas industry.

“We can’t make people follow the law,” he said. “But if they don’t, we’ll take enforcement
action against them.”